Commercial.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3138, 25 February 1889, Page 2

Commercial.

Laery and Co report sale 3 for the past week: Potatoes, £6 to £6 10a; onions £8 to £9; oats 2s 9d to Bs, very little doing; pollard £4lss to £5; bran £4 to £i 7s fid; ohaff, oaten sheaf, X 4 to £4 10s; straw olmff £2 10s to £2l2s 6d; maize 4s; milling wheat, 4s to 4s 2d; fowls wheat 3s fid nominal; malting barley 8s 5d to 8s 9d, no enquiry; feed do,, out of the mirket; Flour £lO 5s to £lOlO a; oatmeal £lB to £lßlos, nominal, no business doing; bacon, 6d to 7d ;'liams, 7d to:9d; cheese s|d to 6d; for. large size; loaf cheese, 7d, sales, dull; frosh butter, 9d to lOd; salt butter, Bd, nominal very little doing; eggs, Is; poultry, without inquiry; oranges and lemons, season over; pines, 5s fid;. bananas; Is fid to 4s; apples 5s to 7a, peaches 10s to 15s per case ; plums 4s to 5s 6d per half casefigs 7s 8d to 8s; dates 5d ; inferior sorts 4d; Barcelona nuts 6d; almond nuts,. od. Large quantities of grass seed are being offered; cocksfoot Bd, rye grass seed 8s;, rape seed 2Jd, nominal, nothing doing.

Kaye find Carter's weekly report, of the Christohuroh Gram and Produce Market, Wheat-Tuscan, 3s 9d; Pearl, 8s 8d; Hunter's, Bs. 7d. Fowlwheat—Good ; whole, 8s 4d; broken, 8s: id. Oats—Milling, 2s 14d ; bright short 2s Sd; duns, 2s 8d; Danish2s 6d. '' -Barley—Prime malting, 4s 6d ; good malting 4s to 4a 8d; feed 2s fid ; Cape, 2s Od; pearl,£lß. Peas—Prussian blues, 8s Gd; medium, 8s sd. Flour-Roller 41110s; stone £lOlO3. Bran, DOs; sharps, 955.; Oatmeal (in 25's), £l6 10s; in 7's, £lß;l6s.%ecorn, 8s Od (nominal)'. : Linseed,ilfiiv . Ryegrass —Machine dressed; Brsd to 8s Od, Cocksfoot { Good, samples- B|d ; medium 8d to Bid, . Oatsheaf chaff —£4 lOs. Hay (baled) £4 - l7s Gd. Butter 8i Cheese - '•loaf, GJd; medium,'; 6d,, Hams, 3d; bacon,' 7'] d; H,' and B, B|d, Lard (in bladders), 4J(I.

"''Talk, and Nothing More'vf/^fl The gieat British statesmen, Sk " Robert' Peel, was wont to keep a i l Jfj private secretary, whose sole funotion' / \x,fa was to out out of the British ja|K " f nals,and paste ma scrap'book, wi ' the liaid and bitter things which weie said against,him and his ad- h\ ministration. In his leisure hours $ Sir Robert was amused and tickled by the reading of these choice 'I excerpts. Sir George Gray seems to i,, be endowed with at least this Peelite proolivity. The other day in hia journeymgs around, with a view of <•> addiug to the Giey collection at the Fiee Public Library, he came across 'a brochure the frontispiece and t Icovei of which was handsomely

lithogiaphed, but the interior contained some thirty pages llt .-: yv. was issued some eight years ago, at ; • > the general eleotion, succeeding Sir George's Grey's and';.wv. the frontispiece contains :the follow- wtm* mg inscription:—" What BirGeorgeGrey, K. 0.8., as Governor, Superin-.: tendent, member of the Representatives, Premier-:' ol'm-.: Colony, Gentlemen of PortuM tand Proprietor,- has - done. for . ■ .-vn i Widows, Orphans, Poor-People, and - Persons in Distiess generally, and for the Working Man m particular,

By Becorder. 1 [Then in the pamphlet are thirty blank pages, which con- ■ v. .- 1 tain " What Sir* George Grey lies , done!" On the back cover is in-

scribed " Vox ptaeterea m/nl." "Talk, and nothing more." -Sir• • George, instead of-feeling "hit," seems to regard the affair as "a blank* charge," and has just added ■ tho gorgeously got up brochure to tlae j. Grey collection in the Free Publio Library I Some of the political quidnunoSj who' were looking at the.

work, incline to the opinion that somebody mil -wish to see it off the •: m slielvos, but it will not be Sir.George . -v Grey.—N.Z. Herald.

Narrow Escape. " I was once a-professor of mag io ' or the black art." ■ remarked a middle :. aged man to a friend. "It-waß a'' great many years ago when I weut ; to ' Texas, I was quite young and out ot employment. A travelling sleight of . hand performer, called the Fakir*l^' Siva, enga?ed me to. help him inw' ; ■:■■■ business. I assisted him in various ways astonishing the natives with ' optical delusions, but my most important duty was to allow anybody in the audience to Bhoot at me with impun- : ity. "It was rather risky, wasn't it, ; allowing strangera to shoot at you?" " Ordinarily tbero was no risk at all about it. The bullet, which looked and felt like lead, was made of-acom-position that'burned, up as soon as • powderreached it, but on one occasion I came very near losing my life," "How did that happen?" "It happened ,at Weatherford. There were .several large herds of cattle there en-route for Kansas, and the town was filled with cowboys, WIM the performance opened in the secdV storey of the town hall, the audienco;reminded me of a battle - field. Every cowboy was buckled- to two revolvers, and some of them wore .- three. 1 At last my time came. The Fakir of Siva introduced me to the' audience :-'"Thiß gentleman, ho said, 'is tho celebrated Professor Amandus, 'the great wizard, who is the only human being in the 'universe ' - who is bullet-proof.' I smiled a very superior sort, of a smile, whichilj had studied for auoh occasions. TlWj professor then produced <i large ancf dangerous-looking- horse pisiol, which -. ! he carefully loaded with a huge dose - of powder.; He ; next brought' out-'a ■ : 1 bullet almost.as large asavpigeon's egg, which he passed from hand.to hand. This was then dropped into the pistol und hummed hoine. '• The Fakir invited any gentleman in-tho audience to take a shot it mo. The cowboys tumultously their number by the name-of Jiano be my executioner. 1 ' ' " Jim took the pistol, but expressed some dread that the law might hold him responsible for the. consequences,. 'He waß/ " assured both by the Fakir and Pro-■ tessor Amandus, which was my stage name, that he would be exonerated. Jim brought the pistol to bear on me, aimed and fired/ I smilingly held up a real lead, bullet which I kept on hand for that purpose.' "I suppose Jim was surprised. Never- in my life, did I see such a stupidly per- , plexed iacQ on a human being, Theq he got mad and charmed pistol down -on the magio table, pulled out his'own revolver and saying 'Catch that, professor I' blazed ' away, < I heard the bullet whizz past my head, The seaond bullet went ; \ through the window a few after I did, There was niere room the outside than in the inside of hall. Fortunately • there was i ■ sand on the outside, and I was not. hurt," "What becamo of the Fakir of Siva ?" -"Hocrawled' under tho • magio table and refused to come out until he saw a good chance, wh'on, with a monkey-like motion, he m'ado for the window on all fours, and out ho went like an arrow from a bow, We displayed more-real science in getting out of the window than we did in the regular' performance, We j listened outside to the performance tlio. \ cowboys were giving for {their own own; amusement. 'lt sounded as if a battle was raging. We did not go baok inside, They yelled, fired off their pistols, shooting .'out the lights, and having a littlo fun. They dis- .'; claimed auy intention of hurting us. ' They merely wanted to stir up the • wizards," "Did you keep on in tho ' magic business?" "No; I: had a settlement with the Fakir next day, ; I told him that five Shillings a night •.'...' was not sufficient , to justifyrme, in, jumping from second-storey window? with .real bullets whizzing about.Mb : ' head. He gave mo a sovereign. afPLv .then]and there we parted, I hayo-lf* not been a wizard since;" • " r ':/ T .